Massive Express Entry Draw Of 2018 Issues 3,900 Invitations to Apply

On September 5^th, 2018, the biggest Express Entry Canada 2018 draw was held, and the Canadian Government issued 3,900 invitations to apply for permanent residence in Canada.

The all-programs draw, which was the fourth for the year, had a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS)cut-off score of 440, which has been the lowest to date with 14:28:34 UTC on April 29^th as the tie-break date and time. This simply means that all applicants with a CRS score of 440 who have submitted their applications on or before the tie-break time and date will be receiving an Invitation to Apply (ITA) in the current draw.

Applications and profiles for the three primary Federal Economic Immigration categories in Canada, i.e. the Federal Skilled Trades Class, the Canadian Experience Class and the Federal Skilled Worker Class are managed by the Express Entry System.

Applicants are judged according to their CRS score and are allotted points according to specific criteria. Applicants whose points exceed the CRS cut-off are invited to apply, and these cut-off scores are declared at regular intervals.

Since June 13^th, 3,750 ITAs were being issued in every draw by the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and this trend was repeated six times, but today’s draw saw a change in the pattern and 3,900 ITAswere issued.

The IRCC has issued thousands of ITAs over a series of draws throughout 2018 and periodically increasing the number of ITAs issued by 250 or 500. At the beginning of 2018, the draws issued 2,750 ITAs which slowly increased to a level seen at today’s draw.

With the frequency of draws and increased in the number of ITAs being issued since the draw of June 13^th, 2018 have helped the CRS score to reach 440  which also prevented it from increasing. The increased size of the draw and many successive draws affect the decrease of the CRS scores in the subsequent draws.

Applicants can improve their CRS scores on the Canada express entry points calculator in many ways, which may include obtaining a provincial nomination which awards an additional 600 points. The Express Entry-linked Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) have been highly innovative and responsive to applicants ‘demands.  .

In 2018, the IRCC has issued 58,600 ITAs in a span of 18 draws which is marginally higher than the number of ITAs issued in the previous year after 18 draws, i.e. 57,751 ITAs were issued in 2017 after 18 draws. However, in September 201763,777 ITAs were issued, which implies that in 2018, 5,177 less ITAs have been issued over the same period as compared to last year.

In 2017, IRCC has issued a total of 86,023 ITAs, and it is likely that this will surpass this figure this year with IRCC increasing its targets for 2018 and 2019. With the IRCC increasing the number of ITAs being issued, it is more likely that this trend will continue throughout the fall.